1. Field of the Invention
The container assembly of the application relates to plastic container assemblies for liquid material, for example, which lend themselves to economical mass production techniques, and may be economically utilized in the beverage industry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The container industry has been responsible for developing a wide range of plastic containers to accommodate the shipping, storing, displaying and dispensing of a large variety of liquid products, for example.
One area of container design in which considerable attention has been focused is in the field of beverage dispensing structures. Various structures have been developed to facilitate the dispensing of beverages in plastic containers. The structures include features to facilitate the opening of the containers to accomplish the desired dispensing function. Opening structures of the prior art include tear strips, and score lines to facilitate the fracturing of a junction of the container to provide access to the contained liquid. Typical prior art structures are illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,333 to Stelzer; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,472,367, 3,472,368, and 3,689,458 to Hellstrom; U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,734 to Siegel; and U.S. Pat. No. 185,299 to O'Connor.
While the containers illustrated and described in the above cited patents successfully accomplished certain of the stated objectives, none of the containers included an efficient, integral, inexpensive and sanitary dispensing structure.
Liquid containers having built-in drinking straws have been developed to provide an efficient and sanitary dispensing structure and are well known in the prior art. Typically, these containers include either a rigid container or a flexible pouch type container. Rigid containers of the carton-type with drinking straws are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,122,297 to Sachs, U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,329 to Pugh and U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,679 to Pfahler. Such containers are typically formed of a substantially rigid material such as treated paperboard material. The entire drinking straw is disposed within the interior of the container. Flexible containers having drinking straws contained therein are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,992,118 to Daline and U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,604 to Gunther, Sr. These containers, unlike the rigid containers, when opened, must be supported against a fixed support in order to avoid the spilling of the contents.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,144,976 to Freshour discloses a container structure designed to overcome the spilling disadvantage of the flexible wall pouch type container. The container includes a substantially rigid supporting frame member for the associated thin flexible material which forms the liquid containing pouch. Further, the pouches of the container include a main compartment for the liquid and a dispensing compartment for housing a drinking straw. The lower portions of the two compartments are in communication through a small restricted aperture which acts to restrict the flow of liquid from the main compartment into the dispensing compartment. When the flexible pouch is laid on its side, liquid must flow through the small restriction in order to spill out of the container. Clearly, the structure does not prevent, but merely restricts, the spillage of the contained liquid.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,914 to Schmit et al discloses a flexible container adopted for storing liquids having flexible side walls and a dispensing member enclosed within the container capable of being unfolded into a dispensing position.